New Stuff

I like this layout. Not sure why. I just do. I think it's the picture, and the story behind it.  My hubby is such an avid golfer. PLEASE! And this is the day... nay... the MOMENT... that our son, Dana... his pride and joy... his life... his beacon of absolute joy...

well... this son, pride, joy, life, beacon, and joy... he got a NATURAL PAR!!!!  Wow. What does that mean? Well.. Daddy didn't help him get it. No saying "Oh.. just pick up the ball, and throw it closer"... and no "Just take another shot. It's ok."

Nope. He hit the ball.. hit it... hit it.. and here he is.. ready to sink it on the 4th (at a par 4). Yeah baby. 

Make and Take

This is a make and take that we did at the Scrapfest Crop. The flower is made with a strip of cloth, and the flowers are made by the same. 

of the 4 legged variety...

And to finish off with a bit of *us*... here's the latest addition to the house... Mischa...

 along with my usual Problematic Puggle of Perpetual Need... Beauregard.  

She's having trouble *getting it* (going after the cats). 

And she's driving Beauregard a bit insane. 

But so far, so good. 

Training is an ongoing thing, and whew... some days I question my decision. 

But she's cute. And she's adorable... 

and we do get a kick out of her, when she copies Beauregard 

in ALL that he does.

And sometimes she just can't get close enough to him...

He will usually let her do as she wants. Sometimes he'll get up and go somewhere else.

                                                                     

And when that happens... she'll usually just head over to her bed, lay down... and go to sleep!

Not sure why she decides to hang mostly OUT of the bed.                 

Beau? He'll find a spot with me, or with Daddy (as here, in the family room)

... and go back to sleep.

Sarah's Challenge Blog

Come on Over to Sarah Hurley's Challenge Blog, and join in on this week's challenge. I've done the challenge this week.  Check out what everyone did, and just what the challenge is. Here is mine below. I've used Sarah's products to create this card.                                                                                                 

Scrapfest Creations

This card/easel is a make and take that I did at Scrapfest. I love the entire easel look to this card. I need the die that cuts the back part (that creates the easel effect).

This is a layout I created at Scrapfest in response to a contest going on at the crop. We were to use a song or lyrics from the 60's. I chose "What's new Pussycat."  It's not showcasing well, but there is a really neat jungle cat beside the "W". 

Here is another Make and Take that I did at Scrapfest. It's a smaller canvas that is covered in yummy paper. It's a picture of my son, standing at Epcot.

I'll talk more about Scrapfest tomorrow.  

I really had a great time at Scrapfest, as usual. There were so many awesome vendors, who were showcasing amazing product. Fancy Pants was there... as was Maya Road and Zion. I did Make and Takes with all of them... Of COURSE!!!! :)

More tomorrow!!!

New stuff

New Challenge Day

Today... is a new challenge day at Sarah Hurley's Challenge Blog !  Come by and check it out.  It the UK, Mother's Day is near, so the challenge this week is "Mum's the Word".  I did a card for the challenge, using Sarah's paper, and her downloads, along with letters and cardstock, and ribbon. So drop by and see what the team made for that challenge, and play along.  My card says "Mum's the Word".  Inside, it says... But you mean a lot to me.  It's not a mothers day card.  It's not mothers day here in Canada... and I lost my mom when I was young. So.. no Mom to give a card to!  So I don't make Mothers Day cards.  

A New Layout!

This layout is called "Summer in Wonderland".  It's a layout of our son Dana, and my hubby (I'm the one TAKING the picture, of course), at Wonderland, enjoying the rides and good times.  The upper pic is hubby in his car, with Dana in the front (I was to sit beside him when I took the pic).  The one pic was him sitting in a Fred Flintstone car, at a fast food restaurant. The main pic, is him at the bottom of a slide. (it was my favourite pic, and just luck that I managed to catch him come down, in a stream of other children.)  I can't seem to find my layout mojo anymore. But I'm heading to SCRAPFEST in Kitchener next weekend, and SO looking forward to it!  To being inspired. To seeing how the other women create. To participating in all of the Make and Takes with Scrapbook and Cards Today, and in seeing all of the new product.  Maya Road and Fancy Pants are both going to be there. Not sure who else. But fun times. I need the inspiration. And let's face it. I need the fun too.  lol

Stormy Weather

A New Layout!  Yeah Me!

I mean really.. what else is there to say? I'm just so happy to be creating regularly again. This layout is my son at 5. We signed him up for a Blue Jay Baseball camp. The blue jay trainers came to town to train the little ones and big ones.  He was definitely the tiniest. For those of you who aren't ball fans, or not Canadian... The Blue Jays... aka The Toronto Blue Jays are my boys. My team. My guys.  :)

Stormy Weather

Spring was just here, wasn't it? Yesterday, we got about 8 or 9 inches of snow. I mean.. come on! What happened? Wasn't I just talking about lovely Spring? Sigh  I know that's why this winter descended on us. I know it.

I'm depressed.

What's the weather like on your end?

Top Secret Who?

Undercover Hit?  

and

Top Secret Who-Did-You-Say-You-Are?

So... last night, two lovely police officers were here until close to 2:00 a.m.  

Yes! I DID say 2:00 a.m.!

Why, you ask, did you have the police there until 2:00 a.m.???  

I took the family van... an innocuous dark blue van, that looks like all other family vans...

went to the grocery store at 9:30 p.m. and then to pick my son up at 10:00 p.m.

That's when it happened!

I pulled out of the back driveway of the grocery store parking lot, onto a darkened back street, that was a short cut to my son's girlfriend's house.  I had driven up about 5 houses when a large 4 door dark, inconspicuous car pulled quickly beside me in the oncoming traffic lane to my left, and just as quickly, moved in front of my van, cutting me off... and pulling off towards the side of the road, and forcing me to stop!  I stopped quickly, with my heart pounding...

As I stared forward, I looked at two men, dressed in slacks, shirts, and ties, coming at my van.

The first, approaches my door, while the taller one, puts one hand on the front engine of my car, blocking any ability to move forward... staring into my windshield.

What on earth had I done?

I live in a small university city about 45 minutes out of Toronto, Ontario. Our city police force are polite gentlemen, who are nothing like the tv cops who portray large city policing.

I do not ever break the law. I'm the daughter of a cop, with almost all men in my life growing up... 

also being cops.

So there is no intimidation factor .

Usually.

As I stared into the eyes of the tall man with his hand on my car, and the other stocky man rapped his knuckles on my side window, telling me to get out of the car...I was afraid!  

Now I *think* that I saw the man to my side, flash a badge... but I couldn't swear to that!

I opened the door, and said "Is there a problem, officer?"

He just looked cooly at me and said I'm going to have you exit your vehicle please maam.

"Um.. I need to call my son. He's going to panic if I don't show up!" I responded.

"No, maam. Just get out of the vehicle for me", was his response

I then said "look.. my son is expecting me, and will cause a 911 incident, if I don't show up on time"

At that possibility, he allowed me to call my son.

But my son didn't answer! He often doesn't for one reason or another. He doesn't get the call in her basement, is the main one... so I said.. "I'll just text him that I'm delayed". 

"There's no need for that, maam. He's clearly not THAT worried", he said.. noting that my son hadn't answered.

Again.. I reiterated that my son would call 911 with no word from me, and he insisted on watching me text him.  Ugh.

After texting him, the officer again said "Please get out of the van maam."

I got out. He ordered me to leave my door open, and DO NOT remove that phone. Leave it on your dash!  And then he went on to say "I'm going to have you open this door for me maam", pointing to the back sliding drivers side door.

I opened it.

He then pointed to the wet grass and gruffly demanded... "I'm going to have you go and sit down on the grass for me, maam.

I walked off to the cold, wet, grass.

The two of them proceeded to flash their flashlights thru my van, looking for.....

They looked at each other, and one said something under his breath to the other.

The one turned to me and said, "you may leave now"

They walked to their car, as I got back into my van.

Shaking... I drove to my son's girlfriends.... and he drove us home.

My hubby did not like what he heard. He immediately called the police and asked if they had pulled over my van... blah blah blah.

After checking, the desk seargent called him back and said that nobody had run my license plate. He wanted to send some officers around.

That leads me to the two kind gentlemen who were at my house until close to 2:00 a.m.

VERY different men than the two who'd stopped my van.

Now.. I know there were so many things I should have done during that stop, that I didn't do. I just got so afraid and caught up.. I did none of them. Silly me.

Anyway... it turns out that they contacted some cowboy cops from specialty squads in Toronto... and other forces... and will be sending to several more. But we may never know who it was. It may be so top secret, that they aren't letting anyone know... least of all the public.  So I'm left in the dark.  Some of their thoughts were that it might be squads checking on illegal cigarettes being transported, or drug runs, or theft rings, or rcmp, opp, specialty unnamed squads, and even illegal aliens.

Believe it or not... I felt better knowing it was probably one of them...

than the previous thought that it was criminal element looking for something else.

This morning...

I am exhausted.

Have you ever had anything like this happen to you?

Spring!

Oh man. I'm a happy camper. Many say Fall/Autumn is their favourite time of year. Not me! Fall/Autumn is beautiful, for sure... but to me, it just reminds me that the long, cold winter is about to set upon me and my world.  For me, Spring is the season. Spring represents new life. New buds. New starts. New beginnings. It represents grass, blue skies, warmer weather... shedding layers... walks without seeing your breath!  Ahh  Spring is fantastic. I love Spring. And as I look outside, I see what? NO SNOW!  It's good all around. I love no snow. It makes me happy.

Finally!  What's this? A LAYOUT???  

Finally!  I'm back to doing some layouts. I had stuff going on that has put me so far behind in life, I couldn't catch up, no matter what. And honestly, some days I didn't even want to try and catch up. It is just no fun being behind in everything.  Anyone have some cheese with that wine/whine? 

I'm caught up... almost... well.. pretty much. Not quite. I swear, I'll never be caught up now. But I've decided I'm caught up ENOUGH!  lol  Anyway... Here is a layout I worked on last night.  lol  It's called "Itty Bitty (base)Ball Player. We signed our son up for hardball when he was 4 1/2 years old. He was tiny. Not only was he the youngest on the team, but he was by far, the tiniest. He was so cute. Gary coached, and I assisted, so we were able to keep a close eye on him.  

The uniform we got for him had to be an Extra Small.  lol And he still swam in it.  That's why I went with this title. So fitting.  Just a good time.         

Announcement!

Thought I would announce my fun news!  I've been invited to join Sarah Hurley's design team!!!

Check her out HERE, and see how very talented she is.  Sarah is from Essex, and designs some pretty wonderful stuff.  You need to go to her store, to see what she has to offer.  Personally, I love her Wonderland stuff.  It's phenomenal.  What she also has (and you won't be surprised to hear this, knowing how much I love them...) she has a Challenge Blog!!! Each Thursday, she has some fun fun challenges, that you won't want to miss out on it.

She announced her team, and I quickly looked at their blogs, but I have to go and spend some quality time there.  These girls are amazing, and I'm humbled to be on this team with them.  Go and check these talented ladies out!

Sandie (me)

Jo

Tams

Siobhan

Leticia

Sue

Renee

Christine

Natalie

Ria

Taraleigh

Claire

Tammy

Jaine

Camilla

Sarabeth